Green Banana Biomass

I love bananas. And the greens one… even better. They’ve won my heart and also the heart of thousands of Brazilians. But what does the green banana have??? Carmem Miranda would change all the fruits of her hat if she new “What does the green Banana have”?

Picture from site kilocaloria.band.uol.com.br

The green banana biomass was created in Brazil by Heloisa Freitas Valle, in a pure inspiration moment in the 90’s. Helo was a banana producer was told by one of her employees that her pantry was robbed. She had nothing to eat and no time to buy food. She asked for a bunch of green bananas and first she made a soup with them pureed.

She pureed them as if they were a potato and had a perfect soup consistency. In the following day she had the peels. She diced them and went to work. She felt so satiated. Her bowels movement were never as good as this before. Bingo! She realized she had a new SUPER FOOD in her hands. A very powerful thickener with functional properties.

Universities scientifically proven what Helo felt in her body. The biomass was an excellent food. They found out that the most important feature was biomass being a resistant starch. But now you are probably asking, what is a resistant starch.

The starches can be classified as resistant or digestible. The digestible transform themselves in glucose and feed the cells of the body. The resistant escapes digestion process in the small intestine going straight to the large intestine to feed the bacterial flora. They act as a fiber giving satiety and helping to improve the intestinal function.

After researching with universities, Helo took her biomass for a decisive test at Grande Hotel São Pedro, a reference in culinary in Brazil. With her precious recipes she worked with the chefs and together they improved what was already good.

With the historian Marcia Camargos they wrote a book with the history of biomass and recipes “Yes, we have bananas”.

What about biomass in our everyday?

We can use biomass in a lot of different preparations, from breakfast to dinner. It substitutes heavy cream, white flour, corn starch, potato. It works as a thickener and a neutral cream to be a base to which we can add flavourings. It is tasteless before getting ripe. Even those who don’t like bananas can use them.

For breakfast it can go in recipes such as – bread, cakes, pancakes, waffles, smoothies and creams.

At lunch it can substitute heavy cream in preparations such as Strogonoff, chicken breast or red meat with mustard dressing, even to make rice creamier, as a filling as a potato, a zucchini.

Biomass and health

Biomass as mentioned before is prebiotic. Besides the satiety sensation helps your gut to work better. It strengthens your intestines by feeding the good bacteria and for having such a high level of resistant starches, helping to diminish the absorption of fats and glucose. Excellent for diabetics, people with high cholesterol or people that are frequently constipated.

It is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, nicotinic acid, besides sodium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, copper, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine and iodine.

But what about the rest of the banana?

The peel is rich in protein and fiber, also working as a resistant starch.

Biomass is a highly sustainable, cheap food that can help a lot of people to have a healthy and more economic nourishment.

Bibliographical References

Yes, nós temos Bananas, Heloísa de Freitas Valle e Marcia Camargos.

Green Banana Biomass

1. With water and soap wash the organic very green bananas with their peels and rinse them well.
2. In a pressure cooker with boiling water (to create thermal shock) cook the green bananas
3. After it gets pressure cook it for 8 minutes, and turn it off.
4. Let it sit while the air goes out
5. When it is ready keep the bananas in the warm water
6. Gradually remove the peel from the bananas and blend or process the pulp with water. It is important for it to be hot otherwise and can get crumbly. This is the green banana biomass.
7. You can keep part in the fridge to use it in a week or two. And the rest you can keep in containers in the freezer to be used in 3 or 4 months. It needs to be reprocessed before being used.

Picture from site belezaesaude.com.br 

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